3 Easy Ways to Find Social Media Topics To Boost Engagement and Shares

Running a professional social media account isn’t like your own personal Instagram. With social media representing a cornerstone of many companies’ digital marketing strategy, it’s crucial to pull it off just right. You can’t just share anything and everything, no matter how cute those memes are. You’ve got to post the right things, at the right time, with the right hashtags to help your brand get found by your target audience. Doing that constantly is hard, yet many brands seem to do it just fine. From the customer’s perspective, it looks easy, effortless, and fun. From ours, it can oscillate between mystifying and awe-inspiring. So how do successful brands do it? They’ve mastered the art of topic curation, of finding what their readers are interested in and maintaining their brand identity in the process. There’s plenty of science about how often to post, or what platforms to use.  There’s a lot less on the art of finding social media topics. If you’re struggling to serve up fresh, trendy social media topics to fill your feed, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to discover three easy ways to identify brand-focused social media topics and content worth sharing.

Download Your Social Media Calendar Template

Keep your topics, ideas, and posts organized in one place with this downloadable social media calendar template:

3 Easy Ways to Find Social Media Topics to Boost Engagement and Shares

Almost everyone uses social media. That’s a very mixed blessing. On one hand, social media provides almost instant access to a large audience of people looking for content. On the other hand, that large audience is sharing its own content too, and suffering from content overload. Source: Pew Research So how do you stand out from the torrent of posts cascading through the digital environment? Stay focused and use these three strategies (and all the ideas!).

1. Start With Your Brand

Just like you use your personal social media to showcase the highlights of your life, start with the highlights of your company’s “life.” Social media offers a chance to humanize your brand, putting a face to the products and services it offers. Solopreneurs and small businesses have a particular advantage in this area because they aren’t fighting the stereotype of the faceless corporation. Allow your customers to get to know you by posting about topics related to your brand:

• Use frequently asked questions. These are things your customers (and potential customers) want to know about.
• Share authentic customer or employee stories. Did something that tugs at your heartstrings? Post about it and tie it back to your values or mission!
• Talk about your brand’s impact on the world. People want to know you’re doing good. Nielsen found that 55% of customers will spend more on a product from a socially responsible company.
• Reveal a day in your life at work. Show your readers who you are and what you do all day in a way that reflects a positive culture.
• Contribute to relevant social conversations. Is there a trending topic in social discussions to which your brand or product is tied? Chime in with your insights!
• Celebrate successful goals or accomplishments. Have you reached a milestone towards a goal or your mission? Invite your audience to share in the celebration!
• Reveal an unusual feature, use, or fact about your product. Incite curiosity and encourage your audience to see you in a new light with an unusual angle that helps your product or service stand out.

Source:  The Manifest

2. Stalk Your Target Audience

The best way to figure out what topics your target audience is truly interested in involves spending some time researching what else they’re asking about. Delve into the minds of your target audience by looking at questions they’re asking elsewhere, identifying what other problems or challenges they have, and brainstorming ways that your brand can provide solutions or answers. Depending on your niche, there are quite a few places on the internet to check. Consider:

• Quora. It’s like Yahoo! Answers but with answers containing more depth and research.
• Reddit. View subreddits like readymade market segments full of readers who are already interested in and discussing a topic. Search r/findareddit for subreddits related to your niche or industry.
• Facebook groups. Like Reddit, these groups can be a goldmine for topics that can be tied back to your brand.
• Amazon reviews. Check reviews left on competitor products to identify questions, pain points, or shortcomings that your brand can address.
• Competitor social media. What are people commenting about on related pages? Are there any related trending social media topics? Address them!
• Competitor content. Identify your competitor’s top-performing content (what your audience is reading on your competitor’s sites) then brainstorm ways to make it better. (We call this the Skyscraper Technique.)
• Industry news. Keep a pulse on your market while checking out the latest news within it. Pay attention to how your target audience may be reacting (or ignoring) things within your industry.
• Google Analytics. Periodically update yourself on your readership demographics. It may give you ideas about potential social media topics based on age, geography or something else.
• Google. It sounds simplistic, but do a Google search for message boards, sites or blogs related to your industry as if you were a customer seeking out your own product.

3. Mine Your Content Calendar

Social media content calendars are a superb way to keep your topics organized. They can also help you keep from getting off-topic, or spot opportunities to bring new and related topics on board. Running out of topics to post about? Your content calendar is also a topic map. It will help you spot ways to include:

• Related topics. Take a look at what social media topics you’ve currently got going and think about how you might expand upon these. See if you can tie in any trending social media topics as well.
• Recurring topics. Drive engagement with a weekly puzzle, quiz, or shout out. This also works for giveaways, sweepstakes and other types of valuable social media content.
• Old topics to recycle. Is there something you haven’t talked about in a while that’s important? Bring it back around!
• Old content types to recycle. Been mostly posting thought-provoking quotes? Try something else. Haven’t done an infographic in a bit? Go digging for statistics.
• Topic cluster support. Topic clusters are interlinked blog posts or webpages that build authority and page ranks. Support your topic clusters by linking to them with social media.
• Discussion opportunities. If you’ve been posting on a specific topic for a little bit, try sharing some of your readers’ feedback or inviting comments on a matter.
• Current events. If you’ve spotted a hole in your calendar’s near future, look around for current events in your industry or related to your brand that can provide a helpful topic.
• Special dates. Think about anniversaries, memories or other date-related topics that give your readers a deeper look into your brand or business.

Finally, remember those mind maps we made in grade school? If you’re having trouble spotting topic opportunities, try creating one out of your calendar’s existing content. You can also try a 30-minute brainstorming session to get you started.

Follow These Tips to Stay Focused, Fresh and Full of Ideas

Keeping a steady flow of social media topics is tricky. In addition to being fresh and interesting, you must also maintain a curated brand identity that doesn’t get muddled through confusing styles or messages. These three strategies are specifically meant to help keep your brand focused while you generate ideas for social media. Follow these tips and you’ll create a tight, cohesive, consistent social media presence that keeps readers coming back.